Rome
by Dean
At The Queen's urging, I've been watching the HBO/BBC series Rome: Season 1.
It's a remarkable series on multiple levels. On an artistic level, it is probably the most realistic portrayal of Roman society I've ever seen in a drama. The Romans were an incredibly brutal and cruel people, and quite a bit more sexually libertine than most Americans ever are or have been.
Which is not to say that the series is without its flaws. But it captures the absolute savagery that the real original Romans embraced extremely well, and much better than anything I've ever seen out of Hollywood. Compared to enjoyable fluff like Gladiator or the brilliant but somewhat sanitized I, Claudius, this series is practically a documentary.
It's not without its flaws and its artistic license of course. But it seems to capture the ancient Romans, especially in the period where the Republic fell, much better on a visceral level than anything I've seen.
"Visceral" is probably the right word by the way. It's a brutally disturbing series. But well acted and well written and probably more true to what Rome was really like than anything I've seen yet in movies or TV.
If you're wondering whether you should watch it with family: the scene where a noblewoman mother has the male genitals (including penis) of a goat hacked off chopped to bits, then forces her thin son to eat them because she's worried that he's only 13 or so and still hasn't raped any of the family slaves yet should give you a good clue what the series is like.
(And no, that is not a gratuitous example. It's a very, very Roman one.)
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